Search form

A World Without America

Why the administration's leaks could become the match that sets the Middle East aflame.

Even as Syria, Iran, Russia and China planned one of the biggest war games in Middle Eastern history, including 90,000 troops, 400 aircraft, and 1,000 tanks, the Obama administration was busily leaking more confidential information to the press endangering Israel’s national security. According to the Washington Post, “Western officials with knowledge” told the Post that the Flame virus, which helped cripple the Iranian nuclear effort, was a joint U.S.-Israeli project.

“The effort, involving the National Security Agency, the CIA and Israel’s military,” reported the Post, "has included the use of destructive software such as the so-called Stuxnet virus to cause malfunctions in Iran’s nuclear enrichment equipment.”

This is merely the latest in a long line of Obama administration leaks, many of which have violated trust with Israel, and all of which have undermined Israel’s ability to strike at Iranian nuclear development. Back in 2010, the Obama administration leaked information about Israel’s cooperation with Saudi Arabia to the press, quashing that program to grant Israel use of Saudi airspace for a strike against Iran. This year, the Defense Department leaked possible timing on an Israeli strike against Iran, as well as information on Azerbaijan granting Israel access to local airbases.

The Obama administration leaks, geared toward the singular goal of achieving Obama’s re-election, could, some observers think, become the match that sets the Middle East aflame.

Obama’s only goal with these leaks is to prevent Israel from striking Iran before the election. By the same token, Obama’s kowtowing to Iran, his inaction on Syria, his futzing on Egypt, and his silence on Russia all bespeak a candidate attempting to delay the course of events for as long as possible. If the United States takes no stand, Obama thinks, there will be no chain reaction of violence.

This perspective springs from both naivete and a post-colonialist worldview that suggests that international violence is brought about only by American action. If we just stayed home and let other countries handle things without our influence, the logic goes, the world will be a more peaceful place. This is the same philosophy that says that the War on Terror only bred terror, and that the American alliance with Israel only breeds Middle Eastern turmoil.

It’s a dangerous delusion.

We are seeing the effects of a world without America. The rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt can be attributed to the non-support of the United States for its erstwhile ally, Hosni Mubarak. Now Egypt has moved closer to war with Israel.

The rise of the Iranian nuclear program can be attributed largely to the Obama administration’s failure to support any real uprising in Iran, and its pathetic insistence that only the United Nations (packed with Iranian allies like Russia and China) can solve the problem.

The rise of renewed Russian militarism can be attributed in large measure to the Obama administration and its pusillanimous “Reset” policy. The rise of Chinese interference in the Middle East has been accelerated dramatically by China’s newfound confidence in American wallflower-ism. While we pay their military budget with our debt, they ally with American enemies around the globe.

It is only fear of residual American power that forestalls proxy wars in Syria, Egypt, North Korea, Ukraine, and a number of other countries around the globe. But Obama is busily assuaging such fears.

The natural effect is global chaos. Israel feels it has no choice but to strike Iran now before Obama is reelected. Iran feels it has no choice but to accelerate its nuclear program, because if Romney takes the presidency, the policy of American non-interventionism may end. Russia feels it must build alliances before a more muscular man takes the White House.